Leveraging Web-Based Tools for Enhanced Symbology Sharing in Mapping Projects: A California Department of Water Resource

1. Using Web-Based Tools to Share Symbology: A Case Study with Mapmakers from the California Department of Water Resources Capstone Project Proposal by Sarah Troedson Spring 2011

2. Introduction • Background • Research Objectives • Methods • Significance and Limitations • Summary

3. Introduction • Maps are a critical form of communication in Emergency Management • Analytical tool • Aid to developing a Common Operational Picture (COP) • Tasks are time sensitive: standards can save lives and property • Standards also make collaboration among agencies more efficient

4. Introduction • Few existing map symbology standards at the federal level (Homeland Security Working Group, 2005; Dymon 2003) • National Response Framework (2008) does not list flooding as a type of emergency • Existing federal standards inadequate for the California Department of Water Resources (DWR)

5. Background • The main locations of flooding in California are: • Central Valley • coastal areas • high desert areas

6. Background • Flooding side effect of another hazard but most often due to weather patterns • Levees old and often poorly maintained • Flooding can be predicted but depends on • certainty of the weather forecast • condition of the levees

7. Background • DWR and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) share jurisdiction over many of the levees • Many of the levees were built by USACE • Nearly all are maintained by local agencies and special districts, coordinating with DWR • Not all meet FEMA levee certification standards (FEMA 2010, Pineda 2007) • Multi-layer responsibility argues strongly for a single mapping standard • DWR does not yet have any GIS standards

8. Background • DWR created a GIS Subcommittee to develop standards • DWR lacks support tools to develop and refine standard symbology • The GeoVISTA center at Penn State is designing two tools that can help • E-Symbology Portal - a set of web tools designed to help groups collaborate to develop and refine symbol standards • Symbol Store - a web tool designed to help users search for, retrieve, and share their symbols • The focus of this work is on the Symbol Store

9. Background

10. Background

11. Research Objectives • Evaluate the Symbol Store’s utility as an aid for developing DWR’s GIS Standard Symbology • Assess the utility of the Symbol Store in everyday work flow for all DWR’s GIS staff • Determine effectiveness of the Symbol Store for sharing symbols among different branches of DWR • Extrapolate potential to use these tools to share symbols among different agencies

12. Methods • Part 1: Semi-structured interviews • Work flow • Plans to develop their GIS Symbology Standards • Previous attempts to share GIS symbology • Part 2: Building on results from Part 1, • Create instructions for basic use of the e-Symbology Portal and Symbol Store • Create sample tasks for the study participants to complete • Create survey to assess their experience

13. Methods • Part 3: The study participants work through sample tasks and online survey • Part 4: Compile survey results, discuss with participants • Part 5: Compile all results and provide to developers of e-Symbology Portal and Symbol Store.

14. Methods • This is intended to be a formative evaluation (Robinson et al. 2005) of the utility of the Symbol Store.

15. Significance and Limitations • Intended to: Provide valuable insights on • How symbology standards are disseminated and re-used • How tools like the Symbol Store can best assist • Intended to: Gather critiques and recommendations for changes to features of the tools • Not intended to: constitute a best practices recommendation • Not intended to: be a complete overview for DWR

16. Significance and Limitations • Future research possibilities include: • Additional iterations of evaluation work with DWR testers • Evaluating the Symbol Store for inter-agency and multi-agency symbol sharing • Evaluating the tools for developing inter-agency GIS standards • Adding capacity for line and polygon symbols to the Symbol Store • Further evaluation once additional functionality is in place

17. Summary • Based on the need for standard symbology for flooding and flood-related emergencies in California, DWR GIS staff will test the e-Symbology Portal and Symbol Store to assist in developing their GIS standards. • This project will include: • Creation of testing scenario • Creation of evaluation survey questions • Interviews with the participants • Compilation and presentation of all results

18. Questions?

19. References • Boggs, Christina (2011) Personal communication, co-leader GIS Warm Wash Meeting in response to Golden Guardian Exercise, 1 June 2011 • Cal-Atlas Geospatial Clearinghouse (2010) http://atlas.ca.gov/download.html various data sets accessed over the last 2-3 years with varying publication dates, often modified in-house by GEI Consultants, Inc. GIS staff. • California Department of Water Resources, California Levee Database (2011) version 2.2, revision 2, January 28, 2011, used with permission, file geodatabase format • California Department of Water Resources (DWR 2011) “Levee Repair – Levee Evaluation Program” http://www.water.ca.gov/levees/evaluation/ accessed June 2011 • California Department of Water Resources (DWR 2010) “Levee Repair – History of Levees” http://www.water.ca.gov/levees/history/ accessed November, 2010. • California Department of Water Resources Division of Flood Management (DWR DFM 2011) report on “DWR Golden Guardian FY 2011 Flood Emergency Exercise” draft, prepared by Brian Smith and Nova Clemenza • California Emergency Management Agency (2010) “Standardized Emergency Management System-SEMS” Sacramento, CA, http://www.oes.ca.gov/WebPage/oeswebsite.nsf/Content/7386D576C12F26F488257417006C07A7?OpenDocument accessed June, 2011 • California Interagency Watershed Mapping Committee, California Department of Water Resources, Calwater Version 2.2.1 (2004), shapefile format extracted from original interchange file distribution • Cova, T J (1999) “GIS in emergency management” Geographical Information Systems: Principles, Techniques, Applications and Management, P.A. Longley et al Editors, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 845-858 • Department of Homeland Security (2008) “National Response Framework” Washington, DC, http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nrf/nrf-core.pdf accessed June, 2011 • Dymon, Ute J. (2003) “An analysis of emergency map symbology” International Journal of Emergency Management, Vol. 1, No. 3, 227-237 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. • Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA 2010) “Levees – Frequently Asked Questions” Washington, DC http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/fhm/st_broomelv.shtm accessed June 2011 • Homeland Security Working Group (2005) Symbology Reference http://www.fgdc.gov/HSWG/index.html accessed June 2011 • Matteoli, Jaime (2011) Personal communication, co-leader GIS Warm Wash Meeting in response to Golden Guardian Exercise, 1 June 2011 • Pineda, Ricardo (2007) “Cataloging California’s River Levee System” Stormwater: The Journal for Surface Water Quality Professionals, May issue, http://www.stormh2o.com/may-2007/flood-river-levee.aspx accessed June 2011 • Radke, John, et al. (2000) “Application Challenges for Geographic Information Science: Implications for Research, Education, and Policy for Emergency Preparedness and Response”, URISA Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2 Spring • Robinson, Anthony, et. al (2005) “Combining Usability Techniques to Design Geovisualization Tools for Epidemiology” Cartography and Geographic Information Science Vol. 32, no.2, 243-255 • Robinson, Anthony, et al. (2010) “A Web Based Symbol Store for Sharing Map Symbology” Proceedings of the NACIS 2010 Annual Meeting • Roth, Robert E., et al. (2011) “Card Sorting for Cartographic Research and Practice” CaGIS